A Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Quarantine by Aniah Francis
A Black Girl’s Guide to Surviving Quarantine
“Grappling with a new reality”
The year 2020 is one that people, like myself, are still grappling with. Not only are we dealing with health pandemic, but a racial one as well. The effects of these pandemics are not singular. Through the events of these past couples of months, underlying inequalities such as economic and educational have been magnified for the world to see.
In the time of COVID-19, Black girls and women are adjusting to working from home, doing schooling from home, or having to go back to high-stress environments. As such
Black girls everywhere are grappling with unresolved trauma and issues, anxiety, stress, and fear. With access to mental health care services, we’ve had to rely heavily on ourselves to find ways to cope.
This time of isolation has allowed people to pick up “Quarantine Hobbies”. These hobbies that people have begun to pick up help them to cope with this new reality but also without meaning to learn more about themselves and what they like.
Quarantine Hobbies:
- Growing Plants
- Cooking
- Reading
- Yoga
- Exercise
- Writing
- Poetry
- Still-life Sketching
- Doing Hair
- Crafting (not limited to)
- Painting
- Drawing
- Jewelry Making
The list of hobbies goes on.
Work In Progress:
I have gone through the majority of that list but at this moment my favorite hobby would be making body and hair butters.
RECIPE FOR WHIPPED HAIR BUTTER:
- Shea Butter
- Mango Butter
- Aloe Vera Juice
- Coconut Oil
- Olive Oil
- Jojoba Oil
- Argan Oil
- Castor Oil
- Essential oils (for scent)
These are the main ingredients that I use for one of my whipped hair butter.
Instructions:
- Meltdown mango butter and shea butter together until it’s completely liquified.
- Mix together all your oils and aloe vera juice.
- Add ⅓ of oil mixture into the butter mixture and blend together.
- Place oil and butter mixture into your freezer for 40 minutes until it’s solidified once again.
- Scoop out solidified mixture and place it in a mixer, or whip by hand if no mixture is pleasant.
- After the first 20 minutes of whipping the mixture add the rest of the oil mixture created in step 2.
- Continue to whip the mixture again until it becomes light and fluffy (probably 30 more minutes).
- Once the mixture is completely whipped place the mixture in a storage container. Note that the mixture starts to solidify again, make sure that you stir the mixture up once more until the mixture is completely smooth.
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I know people pick up these hobbies with the hope of utilizing their newfound free time but if your experience is anything like mine. These hobbies offer up an opportunity to not only learn more about your likes and dislikes but who you are as a person. It gives you a space to process what is happening in your life but also it gives you a chance to reconnect with things you loved doing as a child.
“Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of chaos, and sometimes in the middle of chaos, you find yourself.”
— Boonaa Mohammed
